Diaper Me

I swear last night might've been a full moon over the Riker-Gong house. We had our typical evening which included bath night for Owen. Usually the process goes like this:
7pm: throw dirty Owen into tub, play and splash around until I see pruney fingers
7:20: dry off and Owen must turn on and off the bathroom light
7:25: head down the hall into the bedroom and finding clean clothes
7:27: chase naked Owen around the second floor trying to lotion him up and diaper him (because he's taken off while looking for clothes)
7:37: naked baby with diaper on askew

Last night, Owen picked up the diaper off the floor walked over to me, handed me the diaper, and lied down on the floor allowing me to diaper him without a fight! Tom witnessed this craziness and we both stared at each other with our jaws on the floor.

Small Victory

Thanksgiving week in Wisconsin was nice. We had an Asian fusion Thanksgiving which just means along with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes you also had roasted pig, char siu, and roast duck in the mix! We also saw our first snow but can't say I was happy to see it already. I think my blood is thinning with all the time spent in Cincinnati.

We also were able to meet up with the Yun-Tauchen family (my best friend Michelle and the entire family). There were 13 of us and as usual, the younger people were on end chattering in english while the more mature people were on the other end conversing in a mixture of chinglish. Although conversation might be different, one thing remains constant at the entire table - Who will get the bill?!?

You see in the Chinese culture when there are gatherings at a restaurant, the game is who will get the bill at the end of the meal. Depending on how close nit the group is will decide on how much fighting will go on. People will literally lean over the table to yank the bill out of the other person's hand. Also, you also strategize on where you will sit at the table (at the beginning of the meal) to best position yourself of winning the bill. And on Friday, I got the bill. I was so sly that no one even noticed the waitress coming over to hand us the bill. I did get the evil stare from Michelle and I'm sure when we see them next at Christmas, they won't be letting their guard down.

Family Update...and thoughts for Thanksgiving '08

I realize that I've not blogged in a bit - one could surmise that I didn't have anything to say, but those that know me well would tell you that's not possible. As they say at work, here is my 1 pager (because at work, summaries are one page with 3 main topics...)

1. Owen had his first trip to the Emergency Room on Halloween night. He was screaming for 4 hours before we gave in only to find that it was a really bad cold. He of course was quick to recover and passed it on to Tom & I which took us twice as long to recover. We have all recovered, and at his 15 month check up on Friday, he is 'developing well' as the doctor puts it. Owen gained 10 oz (20lbs 10oz) and 3 inches (31") since his 12 mo. visit. The only thing we need to do is stop the bottle and so we have begun the process. Going cold turkey is not jiving well with him yet - it's only day 2.

2. Work is hectic, nothing new, and I've been leading recruiting efforts so it makes my full plate runneth over on some days. I forget that I'm an engineer on most days. The neat thing about recruiting was that I had a mini-reunion with my ChE peeps. During my college years, Kurt, Jason, and I were joined at the hips. We even traveled together to Europe for our summer lab - Kurt was my shopping buddy and Jason cried...over a very spicy taco. Sadly, since college I only loosely kept in touch with Kurt. Just recently I found Jason and to top it off, both boys recently quit their respective jobs and took new ones in Madison. Last week, I had to fly into Madison to do a recruiting presentation and grabbed dinner with the both of them - it was like those 7 years hadn't passed by - it was great! and Allison...yes, Kurt is still single...hint, hint.

3. I realized my little brother is growing up! He just bought a house, after 6 months of looking. He closes sometime mid- December. I don't think I've seen him this excited over much of anything. We've actually talked a couple times every week over the past couple weeks as he found the one to bid on and then looked for advice on the process.

Lastly, just so the whole Riker family has the heads up. Owen was asked to be in a wedding, which I said yes to before knowing the date. We just found out it will be Thanksgiving weekend 2008. So, we'll have to see when we'll be able to get together as a whole family! I think we'll be in Sodus in August for Tom's 15 year reunion, which that just sounds old but I'm sure will be fun. Those are the big dates we know of for 2008, we are still planning on a trip to Europe if Tom can finally settle on a country he'd like to visit.

Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to spend this Thanksgiving with the Gong household - Cross your fingers that Bottle-Withdrawl will subside enough for a semi-peaceful ride up north!

Neighborly Fright

Our neighborhood had a halloween parade which had all the kids walking up the main road to the clubhouse. We decided it was probably a good thing to partake in and meet a few more of our neighbors. We weren't exactly sure where the starting line for the parade was but we didn't need to ask for directions because you could a herd of kids decked out in their costumes all migrating towards the starting line. Most of them were 12 and under. It was quite a scene - strollers, wagons, and dogs..oh my! Owen was a bear thanks to pau pau's gift. Fun was had by all and a preview of halloween night. Above is Owen in his costume and more pics can be found on our flickr site.

Monumental Day

We now have something to worry about...out of nowhere, Owen has just decided he can walk on his own without our help. Last weekend, we were noticing that he walked really well when holding one or both of his hands (he preferred to have both held) but if you just set him on his feet, he much rather sit down and crawl rather than walk/lunge to something solid. Today, while Tom and I were enjoying our cup of coffee, I noticed Owen walking away from the couch to the kitchen and made past the kitchen table before falling onto his well cushioned bottom. At that point, in the middle of the floor, he proceeded to get back up to standing position and take off again - heading to the stairs.

Oh, and he also has fast hands - he got a piece of Rocky's dog food into his mouth before we caught him and the only reason why I knew was that he spit half of it out - I think he ate the other half.

A pat on the back

I have a fear of dentists. I'm sure it results from when I was young and my 'traditional' dentist decided to pull my baby teeth (4 of them) that weren't ready to fall out without any novacane. The reason for pulling the teeth out was to avoid needing braces, which was true. There were a few other occasions that followed which didn't help the cause.

Well, I decided I probably it was about time to get my teeth checked (it's been 3 years at least) and made an appointment with a dentist that came recommended. Good news, I didn't freak out and no new cavities. Bad news, I have to go back two more visits to refill the current two cavities for various reasons. Ugh! Small victories.

iResuscitation

Success - my iPod is alive for a while longer. I was directed to a site full of good iPod info (www.ipodlounge.com) - Thanks Deetz! :) where you can look on the forum to see discussions on just about anything with an 'i' in front of it. I didn't have to look hard because my problem is quite a common one (who knew) - When I turned on my iPod, it showed a folder icon with a big exclamation point on top of it and then you can hear the hard drive whirling madly without accomplishing what it really wanted to do....it had crashed. The suggested fixes sounded farfetched but I tried it anyways - jam a screwdriver in it to open it up then shake it a little and replace the top and Voila! You are on your way. I barely jammed the screwdriver into the seam to open it up and did do a bit of shaking as I was trying to get a good hold of it and open up the face. That amount was all it needed and it is fixed - the folder icon went away and I was able to get to my music!!!